Lanesboro, MN

So I've been in Minnesota for about 4 nights now visiting my friend Steph who works as a naturalist at an environmental education center (like Outdoor School pretty much). I took the Amtrak from Chicago up here, traveling through Wisconsin and such. Traveling by train isn't too bad, you get a fair amount of leg room and you can walk around when you please. I've heard that their dining car food is actually pretty decent, but I didn't try it out. I re-read some of my latest book that I finished entitled 'Stumbling on Happiness'. It is by a psych prof. at Harvard and it is all about how we look at the future, how we imagine it and our short comings that lead to us not being able to predict and choose what exactly will make us happy in the future. It was a pretty interesting read. Although a lot of it could be considered textbook info it is presented in a light way, and he is cracking jokes and such throughout the book.

But let's talk about Minnesota. So I am actually at Eagle Bluff Educational Learning Center. The big news is that we got at least 2 feet of snow over the last two days. When I got off the train it was snowing like I had never seen before. Crazy horizontal snow that damn near blinded ya if you looked at it. Because the weather was so bad Steph, Molly (steph's friend) and I decided not to drive back that night because it was just too dangerous. When we were driving there were times when we could only see maybe 6-10 feet in front of us. Add slippery, curvy roads and we're spending the night in the ditch. So Day's Inn it was. After playing some cards and getting some sleep we made it back to the homestead. A quick list of things we've done so far:
- went showshoeing, multiple times
- went x-country skiing
- did two high ropes courses. It's kinda like American Gladiators, but without the spandex.
- went into town when the roads were finally cleared (population of 248 or something) and went to dinner and the pub
- watched the big lebowski. my second time seeing it, I enjoyed it more this time.
- shoveled some snow
- met some really cool people

I even got to see a peregrine falcon today up close (they have a raptor room here). I've had lots of new experiences while here, which has been great. In addition to the above named things I also saw rivers that were completely frozen over (they were also in DC). I think that was the first time I've seen em actually frozen over. Well, I should go enjoy my last few hours here in grand ol' MN. Next I'm off to Colorado to visit my friend Monica that I studied abroad with in Italy a few years back.

And, I think it is worth noting that I just feel lucky. Not win the lottery lucky or win poker lucky (I did lose two bucks the other night playin hold em but on real good hands, i swear. the odds of losing out on a high card flush twice? pretty poor) but lucky to be having these new experiences, seeing different parts of America but most of all to have these friends that are willing to take me in, show me a good time and everything else. I just hope that I can repay the favor sometime in the near future. Adios amigos...